Season premiere was last night, and there was no thread, so I thought I would start it up.

Episode 3.01: We’re a Couple Now, Haters!Mindy and Danny try to find a balance between work and romance in the Season 3 premiere. Meanwhile, Morgan’s cousin Lou visits the office; and Jeremy organizes a charity event with Peter’s girlfriend.

Good first season, great second season…I’ve got high hopes for this third season, and the premiere makes me hopeful. Kaling and Messina have really grown into these roles, and I’m loving everything so far. Messina, in particular, impressed me in this episode. I know a lot of people loved him last season, but I guess it took me until tonight to be really impressed. Beyond the great stuff with those two (like the secret reveal scene), there were a lot of laugh-out-loud one-liners tonight. I might have to go back and rewatch in case I missed anything, but overall, a great start.

This was an enjoyable return and really Danny makes the show for me and his dancing was great but him gossiping was so funny. I still have problems with Mindy as the central character but her with Danny is making me like her more. Then there are the supporting characters who just are useless and I can never remember their names.

Very nice premiere, Mindy and Danny are great together, and Kaling and Messina are doing a great job. Those dances were hilarious. Messina is amazing. But the supporting characters are yet again wasted, even if the two ladies had some funny lines.

I don’t understand, seriously, I never will, why this show keeps having so many guest stars and so often. Why add Rob McElhenney (a rare tv appearance outside of Sunny) if you already have three other supporting actors on the show that don’t do much? It seems as if they hate their supporting characters outside of Morgan and since they can’t rewrite them, recast them or change them in general, they write new ones each week. Then they also had Peter’s girlfriend, another guest character when they have three other regular women, so I have to ask, was Betsy even in this episode?

I’m sure I wrote the same thing last season at least once. And I’ll keep saying it apparently since the poster before me says we’ll get Yeardley Smith AND Rhea Perlman in the same episode. What about your other three regular female characters Mindy Kaling? Does Danny’s mom really need a rival? Common. And if so, why can’t Beverly and Danny’s mom get into a silly feud and she becomes the rival during her visit? Why can’t Danny’s mom hate Tamra and they get into fight?

I loved the premiere. Every Danny/Mindy interaction is great, and Danny’s dancing is always welcome. Also, his stripper past makes SO MUCH SENSE. This feels like a secret that’s been lingering since the third episode (In Da Club).

I think I’ve adjusted expectations with the supporting players, so I don’t have an issue with how they’re used anymore. Zoe Jarman was let go in the off-season, so Betsy is gone, which is fine, though it seems unreal that Beverly outlasted both Betsy and Shauna. Beverly is just there for the quirky one-liners, which is fine, and Tamra actually is developing a little more. Morgan and Peter are the other two characters the show seems to value aside from Mindy and Danny, and Jeremy has at least started off the season with a storyline, so there’s hope there. I think the show has never been sure what other female presences besides Mindy to include, which is why we have had such a parade of female supporting and guest characters. Giving the guys more stories would help with that, because Mindy’s world is basically just about the men in her life and her relationships with them. They probably also don’t want to lose that feeling of Mindy’s string of outrageous love interests, even though she’s with Danny, which is why we’ll still get random male guest stars like Rob McElhenney, who was fun in this.

Even though I can see room for some improvements, the show is totally killing it.

^EmmyLoser, I think you are right about the Mindy Project and learning to accept it for what it is. After two seasons, over 40 plus episodes, chances are the show is not going to change much. I should probably just enjoy it for what it is, for better or worse.

So hopefully this will be my last time commenting on some of the issues with the show. As said above, the show has really never known what to do with most of their supporting cast, especially the female cast members. Despite recasting multiple female characters, they have yet to find something really meaningful for them to do. They are kind of there just to be there. Which is awfully strange considering the head writer of the show (and creator) is a female. You would think a woman could write great roles for other women, but that is not the case with Mindy Kaling and her staff. I have always thought the show would benefit from a strong female character opposite Mindy Kaling but alas that will most likely never happen.

Sadly it is kind of the same thing with the male supporting members of the cast. I find the storylines for them to be real hit and miss. Some weeks it is great and other weeks they are just bizzare and unfunny. As others have said, they seem to be committed to Ike Barinholtz and Adam Paley, with Ed Weeks getting the leftover crumbs. Similar to the female problem, it is strange that Mindy Kaling and associates would have problems writing funny workplace material (which is where most of the male supporting storylines take place). Considering Kaling hails from The Office, you think she would be better at writing her own workplace comedy.

I can live with the guest star bonanza. I guess this is the new Will & Grace when it comes to guest stars. Chances are there are more weeks with guest stars than weeks without them. Most of them are funny and used well, although I cannot help but feel that may be at the expense of some of the regular cast members.

Overall it was a solid debut, with Mindy and Danny’s relationship again being the star of the show. The last five minutes of the show were especially funny. Heres hoping to a great third season of the Mindy Project.

I would guess that the issues with supporting characters stem not from Mindy Kaling’s inability to write strong female characters, but more from the show’s commitment to its identity as a rom-com. Mindy is the lead, and it kind of renders all other female characters inconsequential, because this doesn’t want to be a show about female friendships or strong women clashing or ladies sharing their professional dedication. It could definitely be entertaining to see Mindy opposite a strong female character, but realistically, casting Mindy Lahiri against a strong female would mostly just serve to make our lead look bad in some light or another. I feel the core fanbase of the show loves Mindy while fully aware of her flaws, so it would be tough seeing her cast against a more traditionally strong female, because her characterization would have to shift in order for the comparison not to be unflattering.

I don’t think it has to do with Mindy’s inability to write strong female characters either, I just think she just doesn’t want to. I think she wants Mindy Lahiri to be every female character possible, so of course it won’t be Sex and the City a show about four girls, becuase Mindy Lahiri wants to be all four girls herself. So it’s ok if it’s like EmmyLoser says, the rom com aspect wouldn’t allow Mindy to have another strong female character and perhaps she doesn’t want to fall into the cliche of creating Mindy Lahiri’s sidekick since Mindy behaves like the lead’s sidekick too, that’s fine. And it makes the character funnier.

She instead created the cliche sassy workplace assitant, or nurse in this case. So do something with her! Put her with your other guys in the B or C storyline if you don’t want her to interfere with you rom-com A storyline. But then she doesn’t do that either. She wastes these women and then has to fire them.

Yes the Mindy/Danny thing is enough to carry the show, I say all of this out of frustration because I don’t see the effort in giving these people more to do. And also frustration because now I find out that Zoe Jarman is gone and Ed Weeks is still in. Why not fire him too? Would anybody miss him? This character has not lived up to what he was pitched as during the Pilot and earlier episodes. They added Pally, they seem to love him and the character along with Morgan/Barinholtz. So why keep Ed Weeks at all? Because he’s a partner in the practice?, please…

In the end, maybe she really wants to get rid of all the female characters but she’ll end with a New Girl situation (Cece is disappearing on that show) and that can’t realistically happen since they’re timeslot companions, it would be too awkward for the network to accept.

I would guess that the issues with supporting characters stem not from Mindy Kaling’s inability to write strong female characters, but more from the show’s commitment to its identity as a rom-com. Mindy is the lead, and it kind of renders all other female characters inconsequential, because this doesn’t want to be a show about female friendships or strong women clashing or ladies sharing their professional dedication. It could definitely be entertaining to see Mindy opposite a strong female character, but realistically, casting Mindy Lahiri against a strong female would mostly just serve to make our lead look bad in some light or another. I feel the core fanbase of the show loves Mindy while fully aware of her flaws, so it would be tough seeing her cast against a more traditionally strong female, because her characterization would have to shift in order for the comparison not to be unflattering.

EmmyLoser I agreed with you earlier, but I have to disagree with you on parts of what you said above. In this day and age, I believe a show can have more than one strong female character without them detracting from eachother. Or they can do more than compete for men or jobs. Shows like Sex and the City and even Happy Endings proved that. Especially considering its partly a rom-com, most main female characters in those usually have a female BFF. Heck I cannot think of many rom-coms where the lead actress did not have a famale besty. Somehow Mindy went from having mutiple female friends to pretty much having none.

I understand this is ultimately the Mindy show (hell her name is in the title) but I truly wish she would have more than one female perspective in the show. Or another female presence to balance out all the testosterone from everyone else. Mindy Kaling is an incredible writer, not to mention pretty well accomplished for her age. But I wish she would put more time and effort into the female characters of this show. Or create someone that is as interesting and multi-dimensional as she is. I truly believe she could do this without making her character look bad or less important.

[quote=”EmmyLoser”]I would guess that the issues with supporting characters stem not from Mindy Kaling’s inability to write strong female characters, but more from the show’s commitment to its identity as a rom-com. Mindy is the lead, and it kind of renders all other female characters inconsequential, because this doesn’t want to be a show about female friendships or strong women clashing or ladies sharing their professional dedication. It could definitely be entertaining to see Mindy opposite a strong female character, but realistically, casting Mindy Lahiri against a strong female would mostly just serve to make our lead look bad in some light or another. I feel the core fanbase of the show loves Mindy while fully aware of her flaws, so it would be tough seeing her cast against a more traditionally strong female, because her characterization would have to shift in order for the comparison not to be unflattering.

EmmyLoser I agreed with you earlier, but I have to disagree with you on parts of what you said above. In this day and age, I believe a show can have more than one strong female character without them detracting from eachother. Or they can do more than compete for men or jobs. Shows like Sex and the City and even Happy Endings proved that. Especially considering its partly a rom-com, most main female characters in those usually have a female BFF. Heck I cannot think of many rom-coms where the lead actress did not have a famale besty. Somehow Mindy went from having mutiple female friends to pretty much having none.

I understand this is ultimately the Mindy show (hell her name is in the title) but I truly wish she would have more than one female perspective in the show. Or another female presence to balance out all the testosterone from everyone else. Mindy Kaling is an incredible writer, not to mention pretty well accomplished for her age. But I wish she would put more time and effort into the female characters of this show. Or create someone that is as interesting and multi-dimensional as she is. I truly believe she could do this without making her character look bad or less important.

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Oh yes, I don’t disagree with you in concept. Shows definitely can and do have multiple strong female characters that don’t detract from one another, that work great together, and that don’t have to compete for guys or jobs. I just seems to me the show doesn’t feel like that’s who it is. They’ve had female friends (Gwen, Maggie, Alex), but those characters were boring and/or annoying. I liked Shauna a lot, but she was the first to go. She and Mindy actually were a good pair together because they were different but they could bounce off each other well. Maybe they’re just having a hard time creating females who aren’t into Danny? Alex dated him, and both Shauna and Betsy had crushes on him, all of which were a problem for the longer term narrative.

I go agree, though, that it would be nice to have another female character who actually feels like she matters and isn’t just a caricature like Tamra and Beverly (and Peter) are. Maybe Tracy Wigfield’s Lauren will develop a more prominent role, though I guess that seems unlikely. She’s the kind of character I could see the show giving more screentime to and instituting as Mindy’s go-to for relationship advice.

Such a great season premiere! This could be a writing and acting submission for Mindy Kaling if the Emmys would ever give the show its due. It also featured some surprisingly nimble comedic work from Chris Messina. “Diamond Dan”? Just awesome. Adam Pally finally stepped up. The ensemble work was just incredible. “I’m not the kind of man who’d ever let a woman run a charity with a man./ And I’m the kind of woman who would never run a charity.” Hilarious!